(TV) Re: 'Joshua' / Neglected "Around" / 'Spooky Entanglement'

["Leo Casey" <LeoCasey@comcast.net>]

Hi,

I gotta go with Leif and Keith on this.  

I'd give 'Joshua Fought The Battle of Jericho' a C to a C- (and an F for
laziness!).  I thought the guitar playing and melody wwere dull as
dishwater. It's as if he said: "I ain't gonna give one of my better songs to
charity; I'll give them another stinker like I did with 'Mistakes' and
'Leaves' for the Japanese Earthquake Relief cd. That nut, Richard Lloyd,
thinks my melodies and playing suck ... well wait until he gets a load of
this one!".  

The scary thing is, according to a link Claudia sent this summer, and which
shows a photo of Television's set-list scrawled in Verlaine's handwriting,
Television played this song ('Jericho') either in Sao Paulo or Porto Algre,
Brazil in July.  Maybe 'live' he re-arranged it a lot.  (As a general rule,
I think Tom should stay as far away as possible from African Spirituals (or
R& B/Soul) covers; it's just not his thing/world.  When you look up the
definition of 'Caucasian' in the dictionary (or internet) it's got a picture
of a young Tom with his almost pasty, pale, white skin and a gangly bag of
bones. I am not being racist or disrespectful; Tom is just the polar
opposite of black soul music and that's partially a back-handed complement.)


Leif wrote:
>I can't be the only one who've thought of Verlaine's soloing on the songs
>up to at least "Flash Light" to be *definite*, they are carved in stone,
>they should be *exactly* like they are. From >"The Wonder" [on], the solos
>have been a very mixed bag.

What a great description.  I agree with you that from "The Wonder" to the
present his solos have been hit-or-miss (in the hit column I'd put '5 Hours
>From Calais', 'Ancient Egypt', and 'Prayer' (albeit 'Prayer' solo's 2nd
occurrence at song's end sadly is prematurely faded-out by about 20 seconds
...I think it's one of his most gorgeous, heart-rendering solos.

I was disappointed with his playing and solos on "Songs And Other Things"
(S&OT) other than 'The Day On You' [it alone would be worth the price of
admission], 'From Her Fingers', and 'Peace Piece'. I'd throw in 'The Earth
Is In The Sky' except it's marred by, IMHO, a horrible habit (quirk?) with
which he seems to have fallen in love; it started with S&OT and he still
employs it to the present day:  having a character (or characters) in the
song speak (usually in a sappy, sing-y song-y voice) while his music/playing
virtually disappears.

I know I'm in the minority on "Warm & Cool" ("W & C").  I don't care much
for it except for 'The Deep Dark Clouds', 'Sleepwalkin' ' , and 'Spiritual'
[but it's a White Spiritual], that's 3 out of 22 songs if we're talking
about the Thrill Jockey re-release, expanded version. (That's a worse
winning percentage than Red Sox hurler John Lackey.)  I mean how many
noodling versions of 'Depot' or 'Ore'/'Lore' do we need?  Many of the 
"W & C" songs, e.g., 'Avanti', sound like a soundtrack to a bad Michelangelo
Antonioni movie .... or should I say ennui. (I have a theory that Iggy Pop
stole his idea for his song 'The Passenger" from Antonioni's movie of the
same name . maybe his then ally, Bowie, screened the it for him in the
recording-studio cum chateau they shared during the making of the albums
"Low"/"The Idiot".. but I digress.)

Verlaine's 2006 all-instrumental album, "Around", is an entirely different
story  .. er movie.  Nobody (on this List or elsewhere) ever talks about it
or gives it the credit it deserves (I just noticed
http://allmusic.com/artist/tom-verlaine-p5758/discography gives it 3and a
half stars out of 5); I give it an A to an A+.

Unlike some of "W & C", almost all of "Around" 's songs are fully formed
with great (and multiple) parts/melodies.

Some of the 6 tracks have an introspective beauty [I plagiarized that from
the allmusic,com's reviewer], or an almost spiritual quality.  Several (5!)
have a spookiness to them (reminiscent of the quantum physics concept of
'entanglement', which Einstein's derided as "spooky action at a distance".
Yeah, I know, I've lost my mind.)  Last night, I burned just the 5 spooky
tracks onto a cd-r, and played it with my windows open when I ran out of
candy and wanted to scare the trick-or-treaters away from my house, namely:
the tracks 2, 4, 7, 9, and 15 (the songs 'Brief Description', 'Shadow Walk
Away', 'Candle, 'Flame', and 'New', respectively).

Tracks 5 and 13, i.e., tracks 'Meteor Beach' and 'Wheel Broke', are good,
but their jaunty, light, upbeat-ness clashes with the rest of "Around" 's
seriousness and [and dare I say it] spookiness. Tracks 10 and 14, 'Curtains
Open' and 'The Suns Gliding' also don't seem to fit with the general mood of
the rest of "Around", nor do they appeal to me (they sound more like some of
the weaker stuff on "W & C").  

If we remove the 'out-of-place'/'out-of-mood' songs 'Meteor Beach' and
'Wheel Broke', then of the remaining 14 songs I would give a rating of A
minus to A+ to all but three.  That's 11 out of 14, a Ruth-ian slugging
percentage of .796 ... not too shabby.

****For three of "Around" 's songs, I have two technical questions for the
musicians on this List.  One is in regards to specific guitar
sounds/effects, the other two regard an un-credited, un-named keyboard
instrument on two of "Around" 's songs (but maybe it's a guitar effect that
sounds like a keyboard?).  However, I have decided to ask my two technical
questions in a separate e-mail to the List that will follow in a short while
...probably tomorrow.  I was afraid no one will read this far; so, if I had
included my two technical questions in this last paragraph of a long post
nobody would see them.

Leo

PS: Tom Verlaine and I are 'entangled at a distance'.  He may not know it or
believe it, but Quantum Mechanics proves it's true.  :>)

PPS:  Speaking of the songs 'Candle' and 'Flame' on "Around", I had a very
funny but scary incident happen last night.  (I don't know if
'trick-or-treating' on Halloween is something that occurs in Europe or
Canada?)  My outside porch light did not work, and I determined it was not a
light-bulb  problem.  Fearing that either no trick-or-treaters would ring my
bell, or worse yet, one of them would break their neck walking up onto a
pitch-dark porch, I decided to put two lit candles on a small wooden,
wicker-basket-style table positioned halfway between the top of the stairs
of the long porch and my front door.  For some strange reason, last night,
despite perfect weather, I had the smallest Halloween turnout ever, only 22
kids.  During one of the lulls between trick-or-treaters ringing my
doorbell, I went upstairs and went on-line.  From my PC, I could look out my
bedroom window onto the street below.  At around 8pm, I saw 2 of my
neighbors rushing from their house; when I looked more closely, I noticed
they were heading directly for my house and were carrying a bucket of water.
I ran  downstairs in time to see them trying to extinguish flames 3 feet
high as the wicker-basket table was on fire like there was no tomorrow.
Worse yet, my driveway is lined with large pine trees, so there were clumps
of dead pine needles everywhere.  Another minute or so without my neighbor's
intervention and it could have been quite a conflagration.

Smokey The Bear and the Boy Scoot Troop-leader of my youth would not have
been pleased by my use of lit candles on Halloween.

-----Original Message-----
From: tv-owner@obbard.com [mailto:tv-owner@obbard.com] On Behalf Of leif
joley
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 10:57 AM
To: tv@obbard.com
Subject: RE: (TV) joshua fought the battle of jericho

I *do* like the instrumental records (and actually prefer "Around" to
"Songs..."); also have no problem with the cause, the sound of the guitar or
the standard of the singing. It's the solo that bothers me. Totally aimless.
Like a rehearsal. I can't be the only one who've thought of Verlaine's
soloing
on the songs up to at least "Flash Light" to be *definite*, they are carved
in
stone, they should be *exactly* like they are. From "The Wonder", the solos
have been a very mixed bag. From the instrumental records, I expect this
kind
of free-form playing -- I even enjoy it. With songs, I expect something else
than this. Could be my lack of understanding Verlaine's current ouevre, of
course. Perhaps this is admirable and experimental and avantgarde, after
all.

Leif J, Sweden

> Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:58:50 -0400
> Subject: Re: (TV) joshua fought the battle of jericho
> From: andy.fekete@gmail.com
> To: tv@obbard.com
>
> I have to agree -- I really like Verlaine's solo here.
>
> With an electric guitar, it's far a greater challenge to play something
> loose and unstructured with restraint and filled with space than it is to
> jam it full of notes and squeals.
>
> The latter requires only a guitar; the former requires a guitarist.
>
> Full disclosure: I *like* Warm and Cool.  A *lot*.
>
> -A
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 9:01 AM, Russ Van Rooy <russvr@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Gee. Don't hold back, Leif,  tell us what you really think!  ;)
> > I liked it actually for several reasons: the cause is good and right,
the
> > singing was good on the Verlaine scale, passionate really. Also I liked
the
> > guitar sound. Sometimes I think we are a tad bit harsh on our Messrs
> > Verlaine and Lloyd. I'M glad when they do anything these days!
> > -Russ
> > Sent from my LG phone
> >
> > leif joley <leifjoley@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > >I'd add that shockingly half-arsed guitar playing is on display here.
> > Reminds
> > >me of his version of "Fever", just worse -- and also with the same
lame,
> > >sloppy, direction-less and lazy soloing that plagued so much of "Songs
and
> > >other things". One of the all time greatest instrumentalists who seems
to
> > have
> > >lost the ability to fire off a decent solo, when he for once is
entering
a
> > >recording studio.
> > >
> > >Leif J, Sweden
> > >
> > >> Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:26:47 +0100
> > >> From: razoomyyy@yahoo.de
> > >> Subject: (TV) joshua fought the battle of jericho
> > >> To: tv@obbard.com
> > >>
> > >> Anyone else see this yet?
> > >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h81L7VrFzro
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Non-mumbled/half-arsed singing vocals for once, I am shocked.

-----Original Message-----
From: tv-owner@obbard.com [mailto:tv-owner@obbard.com] On Behalf Of Keith
Allison
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2011 9:08 AM
To: tv@obbard.com
Subject: Re: (TV) joshua fought the battle of jericho

er...snoooze.....

I agree with Leif.

-- 
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"The Wonder - Tom Verlaine, Television&  Stuff"
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